Qualcomm Announces Android Augmented Reality SDK

Qualcomm Incorporated announced the release of its Augmented Reality SDK for Android. The SDK is actually a suite of tools meant to build rich Augmented Reality apps for the Android platform.

The kit will be released through QDevNet, Qualcomm's online developer network and is a step up from traditional augmented reality techniques. Rather than use a phone's GPS as current augmented reality platforms do, Qualcomm's AR SDK uses computer vision to align graphics close to underlying objects. In short, it allows apps to use the camera to recognize particular parts of an environment, such as a floor or walls, thereby giving the app a frame of reference.

"Qualcomm is making it easy for developers to create interactive 3D content for the real world," said Jay Wright, director of business development at Qualcomm.

An example Qualcomm gave in the press release was an app that used the real world as the arena for a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots match. The app recognizes the floor of an area and places the robots close to it, giving them the appearance of standing on a solid surface. Mattel is so pleased with the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots app, that the company is planning to commercialize the game.

Qualcomm invited everyone to their Innovation Event 2009 in London on November 22, where they presented the newest out of their research labs and gave a glimpse of where their journey was taking them. Of interest to us were the ARM netbooks and Qualcomm's newest open source team.

Comments

Qualcomm, ibm, ti, amd

Umar Hafeez

When will qualcomm and such companies open up their manufacturing foundries / fabs for the hardware hacker? or at least open up their spec of processors for hackers to manufacture their own boards etc...There is a lot of FOSS software but there should be FOSS hardware to match the pace of development. then we would have become technicologically some what more independant of handful of a private monopolies